one thing i want to say is everyone calls and complains when they get a bad pizza but most dont call and say you sent me out one damn good pizza and thank you. lol. that being said i was one of the first ones to complain when i thought things were not right, so now i will be the one to say the pizza has been pretty good the last couple times. its good to know usac listened to the racers and said if we have a problem lets make changes and see if we can make things better. thats something we did not have in our previous years in qm racing. thanks to usac for wanting to keep our sport improving every day.

The one thing that still needs attention that HAS NOT made much headway is the safety issue with LEANING! Very disturbing having the shoulders, head and neck hanging over the nerf bars and even more disturbing to see how loose those belts are to lean that far out.

Having checked belts at some of the races I can tell it is not that they are loose unless loosened after they leave onto the track but rather many are set up so both shoulder belts are hooked on the left side. Some so severe that the driver can do nothing but lean to the left.

Am I concerned - absolutely; set up like that if the driver needed to react to sit upright they cannot. I have to assume the handler knows the danger. I have visions of what could happen so far we have been lucky; however, I sure do not want to see that luck pushed.

Yes smoke, I agree that it is great to see an organization listen to the racing community.

Yes, It is the handlers fault. Yet tell me how you are ever going to explain to a child who accidently hits a driver hanging out and result is severe injury that it is not their fault? I cannot imagine the emotional turmoil that child would go through.

Now I do not in any way profess to have even a little knowledge of racing, I do though have a lot of knowledge of trauma having been on a trauma team at a large hospital for 12 years until I could not take any more. And my children never understood why no motorcycles were ever allowed. If one of these leaners gets hit just right we are talking major injury.

I think USAC is doing some great things for the sport, but there are also some areas that need improving too. Hopefully the improvement keep showing up and we keep moving forward.

On the leaning thing, I really do believe USAC will take that out of our sport once they get enough of the market share for Quarter Midget racing. I just hope no kid gets seriously injured before then. One easy way to create a quick fix would be to just start measuring for the 1" space between the top of a kids helmet and the bottom of the top frame rails. Many leaners I have seen wouldn't fit in the car if they sit upright. The rulebook is pretty clear that this measurement is taken with the driver sitting upright.

Rulebook: The roll cage should extend one inch above the driver’s helmet when sitting upright in cockpit, measured from the bottom portion of the tubing.

Yes, It is the handlers fault. Yet tell me how you are ever going to explain to a child who accidently hits a driver hanging out and result is severe injury that it is not their fault? I cannot imagine the emotional turmoil that child would go through.

Now I do not in any way profess to have even a little knowledge of racing, I do though have a lot of knowledge of trauma having been on a trauma team at a large hospital for 12 years until I could not take any more. And my children never understood why no motorcycles were ever allowed. If one of these leaners gets hit just right we are talking major injury.

I've been around racing my entire life and have seen the things that can happen when all possible precautions are taken. I don't even want to imagine what the result is going to be of these handlers blatantly ignoring not even a precaution, but common sense.

I'm not going to let my driver lean out of the car because that would be like letting them hold their arm out of the window of a car going down a country road. I think the sport is fortunate that tragedies haven't occurred more often. It only takes one time.

Although at the Kokomo show I did see the tech guy addressing some of the more serious leaners after their practice session. But there's still not consistency with it.

I have noted that the kids that are leaning just don't realize that they are putting themselves in danger because they have "burned in" the habit that their parents or track officials let them get away with. Most times the leaners are the sons and daughters ( the ones who seem to win every Saturday)of the track officials who are supposed to be policing these violations. Rarely do you see one of the novices or juniors lean out of the car. I credit this to the mom's and dad's who are initially skeptical of .25 racing and take measures to make sure their little J.J. is safe. USAC needs to make random unannounced visits to eliminate problem.

Okay.....let's hear the experts advice and criticisms of my point of view....

Not sure this is the place to address this since it started off as praising USAC. I will never let my kids lean out of their car for 2 major reason. 1) Its far to dangerous of a sport to overlook one simple thing and add another danger. Yes its safer then most kids sports, but it is still true blue racing machines and that makes danger. 2) Of all the race cars I have driven, and none were a midget or sprint, I always sat in the middle on the car. I tell my kids "look if you want to be a professional driver when you grow up your going to have to sit right.With that said I brought it up to another family that thought I was nuts but have a look at your club and see how many cars lose right fronts due to damage. Now look how many of them were hanging out. I believe if you sit your child up, preferably in a nice tight racing seat, and allow them to see the right front tire, there will be way better racing, less crashes, and less charging into the corner..

I just wanna add a few things. We just bought our 5yr old daughter a QM, and that was one of the first things I addressed with my husband. I told him I DID NOT want her head leaning outside the car at all. Its just too scary. The car we bought came with the straight seat, so hopefully we wont have to deal with the leaning. And like CRAZYKID posted, my husband has ran race cars since he was 15 yr old. Hes been in stock cars and mods, and he has never had to "lean".So that will be the theory we use. My kids safety is my biggest concern, and head trauma isnt something I wanna deal with.

Right on. All little league sports that I have been associated stress safety. Officials will stop a Pop Warner football game if they see a violation, take the kid out of the game, and give the coaches a warning and a 15 yarder.